Roles and responsibilities
As Chief Surgical Adviser, Professor Ben Thomson provides expert clinical advice on specialist care and surgical challenges, opportunities and system reform.
Professor Thomson draws on extensive frontline clinical and leadership experience to inform and advocate for surgical policy and reform priorities and to engage health services, clinicians and sector partners to deliver on the Planned Surgery and Specialist Care Reform Blueprints.
Key activities
- Led sector engagement to develop the Planned Surgery Reform and the Specialist Care Reform Blueprints, building support for system-wide long-term improvement
- Engaged the sector to develop statewide standardised operating theatre metrics to improve theatre efficiency
- Provided clinical advice to update the Day Surgery Implementation Toolkit and the expanded list of Same Day Surgery procedures for health services
- Led the Surgical Review Panel pilot project, that demonstrated improved consistency in categorisation and preparation list management
- Supported strategic governance and sector advocacy for VicKey, a digital enabler streamlining communication and improving preparation list management at health services across the state
- Led sector engagement for the Endoscopy Improvement Project.
About the Chief Surgical Adviser
Professor Ben Thomson is an HPB surgeon, trauma & general surgeon that specialises in disorders of the liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile duct. He is the Director of Surgery at The Royal Melbourne Hospital. He also works as a cancer surgeon at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. As part of his cancer work, he travels to see patients in rural Victoria (Wangaratta and Albury Wodonga).
Ben trained in Victoria and in Edinburgh, Scotland, and has worked for more than 21 years as a consultant in Victorian public hospitals. He is also a Clinical Professor at the University of Melbourne and a board member of the AANZHPBA and A-PHPBA.
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